Spray Mops are simple cleaning tools that have gained favor by consumers following a recent trend in the popularity of hard floor surfaces (e.g., tile, wood, stone, marble, linoleum etc.) within the housing market. Early hard floor cleaning tools typically comprised a string mop, rag mop, or sponge mop that was used in conjunction with a separate bucket of cleaning solution. Such devices are still in use today, and can be effective, but they are often considered cumbersome to use.
The foregoing mopping devices have been replaced in the marketplace with increasing frequency by flat mops having a flat plate mounted to a long handle, with a removable cleaning pad attached to the plate. Such cleaning pads have included traditional woven fabrics (e.g., string or a knit fabric), sponges, nonwoven fabrics made of polymers, wood pulp, and the like. Woven and sponge mop pads are generally considered to be reusable, whereas nonwoven pads are often considered to be “disposable” because they are difficult or impossible to effectively clean for multiple reuses.
Flat mops may be used with a separate supply of cleaning fluid (water, detergent or the like), but some are equipped as a “spray mop” having a built-in fluid deposition system including a spray nozzle attached either to the plate or the handle, a vessel filled with liquid cleaning fluid, and mechanism to control the flow of cleaning fluid. Such mechanisms have included, among other things, manually- and electrically-operated pumps, and gravity-operated systems controlled by a valve. The spray frequency and duration are controlled by the user using a hand trigger located on or close to the handle grip. Once the vessel is filled with the cleaning solution of choice and the cleaning pad is installed, the user places the plate on the target surface (typically a floor) and energizes the spray system by squeezing the hand trigger or other mechanism to wet the surface. Once the surface is wetted, the user moves the spray mop pad across the wet surface in forward/aft or left/right directions to wick up the cleaning solution, and applies a light downward force to transfer the dirt from the floor to the (now wet) pad.
The plate of a flat mop typically has a large surface (e.g., ˜400 mm wide×˜100 mm deep). The large surface area provided by the plate and underlying pad provides a large cleaning path, which reduces the time required to clean large areas and provides a significant transfer surface to pick up dirt and liquid. Often, much of the floor area covered by a typical flat mop is large spans of non-obstructed space (e.g., a living room, a hallway, a kitchen area, etc.). However, it is frequently the case that the flat plate is too large to access areas that are obstructed, such as spaces between furniture, under tables, corners and the like. This poses a problem to the user, which is often resolved by either omitting those areas or cleaning those areas by hand. Additionally, there are times when the user does not want to use the same mop pad in multiple rooms. Users often resolved this problem by using two separate spray mops or by changing pads.
There exists a need to provide alternative solutions to the problems of cleaning obstructed floor space using flat mops, spray mops, and the like.